Saturday, October 31, 2009

For everyone's drawn-n-quartered All Hallow's Eve enjoyment, myself and three friends of mine have banded together to release a four-way split of what we imagine is the perfect music for the night of the 31st.

German Shepherd kicks things off right with a 15 minute doom-dirge cover of Samhain's "Human Pony Girl" (with special guest BOG MAN)...then I'm up to bat with three black-sludge-noize-walls, summoned from the grave and assembled from Bach's "Toccata & Fugue In D-Minor", Jandek's "Down In A Mirror" and Bauhaus' classic "Bela Lugosi's Dead"...axe-strangler Millipede, hailing from Chattanooga TN, shoots fake blood from his guitar via the tracks "October" (first Millipede with vox!) and "A Forest" (originally birthed by The Cure)...to close up our little shop of horrorz, MOTH (that's Meditations On The Holy for ye late folk) lights a kerosene pentagram on fire while singing a spooky rendition of Sabbath's "Dirty Women" and finally burying the trick-er-treaters alive with "A Room".

If all that slaughter isn't enough for you, we're bringing it to your door for FREE. GO AND DOWNLOAD IT! SCARE KIDS ON YOUR STREET. FREAK OUT YOUR PARENTS. OR JUST SMOKE SOME WEED AND HAVE A GOOD TIME. IT'S ON US!

Made possible by Sunrise Acoustics, ignoring fidelity since 1991:CLICK

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

After a year and a half of work, the fruits of my first real soundtracking job have now arrived. Being the project that essentially reinvigorated my interest in making ambient music as Milieu, this commission is very significant for me. Initially named "Dyson" when it was first created, Eufloria is an ambient strategy game that has gone through a number of changes and has been nominated for several awards as well as winning some. I signed on to design sound effects and compose unique music for the game's modern and surreal atmosphere. This album, containing 2 and a half hours of new music spread over two discs, is the result. Lovingly packaged in full-color artwork from the game itself, and limited to 100 copies. This disc is sure to please longtime listeners as well as newcomers to the Milieu sound.

Additionally, any of you reading this who are gamers should definitely check out the final released version of the game! It is currently available from a number of places, including Steam, Direct2Drive and also the Eufloria developers themselves. I cannot stress enough how unique the game really is, and it really makes the music I did come to life!

A new 3" CD-R EP containing one long track from the recording sessions for to-be-released Milieu album. Recorded in spring, left to settle on a cassette, then fixed up in summertime. Musically similar to something like Of The Apple or the upcoming Phosphene Weather LP, this piece has lots of deep humming bass, raindrop-organ lines and sweeping dusky chords. Perfect for a cool night with the windows open and a cat napping on your lap.

A double-dose of Analog Botany this month with special guest Radere (known elsewhere to some as Carl Ritger, hailing from camp Wood-Land in PA). Mr. Radere stepped in to do two exquisite and long remixes of the unreleased Coppice Halifax track "Inlets" and I constructed two rebuilds of his track "The Sunrise Ruby" to even it out. Carl's tracks are deep and foresty, but cleaner and opened up, almost like a cross between Intrusion and On Land-era Eno. My pieces pick up where you'd expect them to, one being more in the vein of the AB series and the other inhabiting circa-2008 Halifaxland (see: EEDCD08).

Number 10 in the ongoing AB series here. Named after a sound that David Tagg christened in 2006, AB10 brings more of the deep dubby minimal techno that the AB series has come to embody. Followers of the imprint may recognize some new elements introduced on this EP, such as Rhodes pianos, making it a truly "beachy" and "glassy" experience.

I've updated the digital shop with another release: the Milieu EP Shade Versions, which was previously only available with the first 25 copies of Swaying Palms. Now available in high-quality MP3 format with high-res artwork, those of you who couldn't get in on the first copies of Swaying Palms can now check out this EP of alternate "ambient" versions of songs from the sessions for only $5!

The stellar experimental Australian label Sound & Fury have given me the honor of releasing something with them! Limited to a scarce 75 copies in their trademark wax-stamped letter sleeves, White Kingdoms is some of the most monolithic, massive drone I've ever laid to tape. Born from thick slabs of sawtooth waves, organ pedalbass and a healthy dose of glimmering reverbs and washed out flangers, the album contains three giant tracks that are best enjoyed at either very loud or very soft volume levels. I really worked hard to venture outside of some of the sounds I normally work with for drone music, and I think the White Kingdoms sessions opened up a lot of new terrain for my music. Go grab this release before it disappears!

From the same sessions as White Kingdoms, I'm releasing this EP in tandem with the album's arrival, intended as a companion piece. White Dust contains two tracks, both more on the more ambient side, but still really thick and droned out. I really like these two pieces but their more atmospheric and bodiless nature seemed a bit out of place alongside the very statuesque pieces on the album proper. This EP is also a "first" for Milieu Music in this detail: I'm releasing it both as a hard-copy 3" CD-R as well as a digital download, so you can take your pick between the two formats. Check it out!

Opting for a selection of songs both new and old, but altogether something that would take me down 'memory lane', I put together One Last Push On The Swing - nearly 80 minutes of some of the best electronic music ever!

So, for those of you in the mood to hear some of my personal favorites, which have in effect gone on to influence and inspire my own work, mosey on over to the blog and check it out!

About Me

I make a lot of music, I help run a couple great record labels, I'm happily married, I'm better at school than I used to be, I'm half English and half Italian, I really love food, I'm named after my father's favorite Rolling Stones.